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Carnival of Venice always an amazing spectacle

Throughout history people have enjoyed masquerades. With their identities, gender and social positions temporarily concealed, revelers feel free to indulge in hedonistic adventures without fear of retribution.

One of the most famous masquerades is the Carnival of Venice. The first organized masked festivals on the city’s islands and canals were said to have started in the epochal years of the late 12th century by the aristocratic rulers who had built Venice into the most powerful Italian state. The noblemen permitted themselves license to wear masks throughout most of the year but commoners were limited to wearing disguises only in the weeks between Dec. 26 and the beginning of Lent. When the poisoning of enemies became an increasingly popular and acceptable aspect of outrageous licentious behavior, laws were passed to restrict the duration during which masks could be worn.

Standards of living in Venice steadily deteriorated as the city’s influence as a major trading center declined so as a release valve for popular frustration, masquerades and their associated debauchery were actively promoted six months of every year. Bourgeois support for Carnival gradually disappeared, however, with the ascendency of the 18th century political reformers who opposed bad behavior, intemperance and secrecy of all sorts, and by the 1930s, Mussolini’s Fascist Party officially banned all masked celebrations in Italy.

In 1979 Venetians revived the traditional feast and festival celebrations of their Carnival. Beginning 10 days before Shrove Tuesday, once again masqueraders from all over the world gather and glitter around St Mark’s Square amidst street artists, musicians, food vendors, acrobats and dance troupes. The disguised wear elaborate costumes sewn from richly embellished luxury fabrics that most often represent styles from historic eras, performers from the 16th century Italian form of improvisational theatre known as Commedia dell’Arte or characters from mythology and nature. The quintessential part of all Venetian Carnival costumes remains the mask and today masks continue to function as great social equalizers while party-goers engage in role reversals, play acting, and varying degrees of gluttony.

Although masks were once produced from leather, modern Venetian mascherari use gesso overlaid with papier mache to create basic face forms and then hand paint the finishes. Of the dozen designs of masks, the most popular and common design today is the Bauta. This solid colored full face mask was used by both 19th century men and women as a reactionary symbol to political figures. Columbine, an ornate half face mask elaborately decorated with gold leaf, is one of the most beautiful masks and reportedly was first worn by the sumptuously dressed gorgeous women of the 16th century whose portraits were painted by Titian. Representative of the beloved characters from the Commedia dell’Arte are Jolly, the female variant of Jester, who was a royal court’s professional fool famous for her distinct laughter and tinkling bells embedded in her hat and Arlecchino the acrobatic servant known in English as Harlequin who played his part by pantomime. Although a modern Venetian Carnival mask, Il Dottore Peste is based on the bird-like masks whose beaks were stuffed with aromatics to act as protective respirators which 14th century doctors used while attending plaque patients. Celebrators wearing fantasma masks dress in all white to achieve a total ghostly effect. Gnaga were young Venetians who masked and dressed as women to disguise their homosexuality. To further accentuate their ambiguity, cross-dressers often also cover their masked faces with an additional stick mask.

The traditional symbol of Venice is the winged lion; however, throughout the city there are plentiful statues of seahorses which, according Roman mythology, pulled the chariot of Neptune, god of the sea.

Carnival in Venice continues to be all about glamorous costumes and masks, gala dinners and grand balls, and being brilliantly conspicuous while allowing people to be a little transgressive before the abstinence and penitence of Lent begins. The theme for 2012 is “La vita `e teatro. Tutti in maschera” (“Life is theater. It’s time to get masked”) and from Feb. 11 through 21 the Venetians’ love of pomp and splendor will once again become an international spectacle.